The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Abridged

We went out last night to see Abby perform in her latest school play.  The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Abridged, was originally written for 3 actors.  Abby and her classmates did it with a cast of 15 or so.  It was very funny, and they seemed to get most of the plays in, not to mention 154 sonnets condensed down to a 3x5 card.

Here is Abby as Hamlet:

And here is most of the cast taking their bows:

All in all, a very creative play.

Conan

So Conan O'Brien came to talk at my company today.  I was not a big fan, but just because I don't know the guy. His show was always on too late for me to watch.

Today I became a fan.

He was hysterically funny, self-deprecating and very normal for a huge star.  The audience loved him - he spent 45 minutes taking questions, telling jokes and just being very entertaining.

Another good perk of my job.

Cinco de Mayo in Calistoga

We went up to the Napa Valley on Sunday, mostly because it was a perfect day for a ride in the convertible.  But we happened to arrive in Calistoga just before their Cinco de Mayo parade got underway, so we decided to find a good spot and watch.  Smart idea - it was total fun.

There were horses:

And great dancers:

And adorable little children:

And there was a whole lot of entertainment:

What a terrific day!

Invisible buttons

Kind of geeky, but interesting.  Apple has filed a patent on "invisible buttons" for mobile devices.  


TechCrunch describes it as "a way to create backlit micro-perforated holes on the aluminum casing of a MacBook or other device which could be used for buttons on the lid when the laptop is closed or below the keyboard when it is open. The buttons could serve as simple displays for WiFi signal or battery strength, control playlists and volume for iTunes songs or movies, or even replace the trackpad."  


And it quotes AppleInsider's description as follows:

The input appears invisible to the user because it would be made of the same material as the housing it is contained in. The use of “invisible” backlit holes could make the input selectively visible or invisible for the user.

One illustration included with the application shows an iPod-like control wheel located to the left of the notebook’s trackpad. Such controls could be displayed with the touch of a finger, and then disappear when they are not in use — such as when a user’s wrist is resting in that area for typing on the keyboard.

Not a bad concept.  Sort of like the disappearing dashboard display on high-end cars like the version demonstrated by Visteon last year.

Times Square

I just got back from New York on Thursday night, after staying 4 days at the Millenium Broadway hotel at Times Square.  Wednesday night I was out there late with some friends, marveling at the people and the activity and the happiness that the theater district brings to New York.

Then Saturday night a car bomb is discovered and defused, right where I was only a couple of days earlier.  Very unsettling.  I am glad the NYC police department did such a good job and no one was hurt, but it makes you think quite a bit.

A sports kind of Saturday

Yesterday was sort of reserved for sports.

I played golf in the morning with friends at The Bridges (shot 83, but I was 11 over after 10 on some bad tee shots and then even par for the last 8 holes).

Then we went to see our nephew Justin play lacrosse - his team won 9-3, and their record is now 11-1.  Pretty impressive.

Finally, after some miscellaneous stuff (including transporting Abby from a show she is working as asst. stage manager to her school where she is starring in another show), we settled in late to watch the Vancouver Canucks beat the Chicago Blackhawks in the first game of their Stanley Cup series.

Lots of sports.  Sunday will not be that focused (except for the Sharks game in the evening!).

Apple shuts down Lala

This report from Wired just makes me mad:

Apple Kills Lala Music Service

• By Eliot Van Buskirk  
• April 30, 2010  |  
• 12:43 pm  |  
• Categories: Media, Social Media

Lala users were greeted with this banner image, atop a note about what will happen to their music collections and existing credits.

Apple closed down the cloud-based Lala music service Friday for reasons unknown, after acquiring it in December. Lala members can still access their online collections, but only until May 31, when Apple will take the service offline completely.

When that happens, all the web-based music purchased by Lala members will become unplayable. Unused music credits, which Lala users bought in chunks in order to redeem multiple songs, will become unredeemable. Any MP3s purchased and downloaded from the service will of course continue to play, but this represents a blow to early adopters of Lala’s streaming songs, which only cost 10 cents.

“In appreciation of your support,” reads a note on Lala.com that is only accessible to members, “you will receive a credit in the amount of your Lala web song purchases for use on Apple’s iTunes Store.”

A really good product, purchased and killed.  I've used it a lot for this blog, but no more.

Bad move.